Needed info on Scanned pictures

[Brian Pitt]

With scanned pictures, the bigger the better. Have them scanned on the highest resolution possible. I used to do weddings, and I would always have to scan the pictures myself. I’d scan them on a high resolution (usually to jpeg format) and then import them into FCP. From there, you can resize them easily. If they are too big, size can be decreased without the picture going to crap. If they are too small and you enlarge them, they start looking crappy.

The other good thing about having them large is that you can add a little bit of motion to them so it isn’t so boring. But the absolute minimum resolution you are going to want is 720*480

NeutaMac

[Bill Willins]

have your client deliver the photos at 1200 pixels wide ( let the height be what it is ) JPEG , 72 dpi. FCP only needs photos at 720 pixels wide, however you want them a little over sized so that there is extra room for slight movements, ie, pans, pulls etc. Once you import these photos in to your FCP project, you can control size, movement etc in your motion tab. Place the photos in your capture scratch folder on your hard drive .. they need to stay there so that the link to this media isn’t broken. Some of the photo’s will most likely be verticals (I ask for horizontals if possible) . in this case you can either crop them to scale 720×480, or use the vertical shot with black on either side of photo. Using photos in video production is such a useful technique, that many people don’t take advantage of enough. BW

[Mcvideo]

BW

Thanks for the reply. These images will all be scanned most likely. Since they are old and if scanned at least 1200 pixels wide won’t i end up with a stretched image or have a lot of black space at ends of pictures? Just curious. I imagine they will be your 4×6 and 5×7 size pictures.. ???

OK, i will have them scanned at 1200 pixels wide, format- jpeg @ 72 dpi.
So if i decide to animate in AE /scaling will not distort the image?
Do i need to de-interlace them?

Thanks for the help and sorry for my lack of knowledge on using images in video. I will learn from this though.. 🙂

[Bill Willins]

If you have a photo scanned at 4×7 at 300 dpi ( high resolution), then in a program such as Photoshop you can easily expand this photo up to 1200 pixels wide at 72 dpi ..without losing any quality.This works because your cutting your dpi by so much. It would be a very good isea for you to have a photo program ( Adobe Photoshop Elements is inexpensive and awesome) for cropping, sharpening, resizing, etc. And then when you import your finished photo into FCP, you will often have to apply a Flicker Filter and or very small Gaussian Blur Filter to remove any jitteries in your final video. BW

[Mcvideo]

BW

I do have PS 7.0 for PC. I

[Bill Willins]

“Do you mind if i shoot you an email if i have any issues? ” No problemo.

[Mcvideo]

Trip

I just realized that you too responded, Thanks! In addition to what BW mentioned in his posts, if pictures are way to small to enlarge, say under 720×480- I

[Kevin Monahan]

which is best, jpg, bmp, tiff, etc?
PICT, TIFF or PSD, not lossy JPG.

With scanned pictures, the bigger the better. Have them scanned on the highest resolution possible.

300 DPI scan is usually OK.

I used to do weddings, and I would always have to scan the pictures myself. I’d scan them on a high resolution (usually to jpeg format)
Again, JPG is not the best you can do. Go with PICT.

and then import them into FCP. From there, you can resize them easily.
No, you should really resize them in Photoshop. You could cause FCP to work too hard with an image that is not oversized.

If they are too big, size can be decreased without the picture going to crap. If they are too small and you enlarge them, they start looking crappy.
That is why you must optimize them in Photoshop first, If you do not do moves on them, than they should be no bigger than the native frame size 720 x 480 and at 72 DPI. Anything beyond that is overkill and will tax your processor, take longer to render, less real-time and can introduce artifacts.

The other good thing about having them large is that you can add a little bit of motion to them so it isn’t so boring.
Yes, 2x the native frame size at 72 DPI is usually fine. 3x if you really want to scale up (zoom into) the image. Many people leave the DPI at 300 DPI, which works OK, but it’s better to be with a larger frame size and at 72 DPI, since that is the target resolution of television and again doesn’t add any unnecessary overhead.

if pictures are way to small to enlarge, say under 720×480- I

[Mcvideo]

Ok, I have a few more questions to really understand it- Such as:

(I get the best format is pict or tiff. Not jpeg)

Your explanation of 2x or 3x the frame size (norm is 720*480) for zooming in etc paragraph..(your last post My question: is there a all time size best to have all pictures scanned in the event I end up changing my mind on how I will use the pictures in the video. This way I won’t need to go back to my client and ask to re-scan, etc. I prefer to have clients send me the 3x frame size @ DPI? (300 or 72??) then I will resize to fit (using photo shop cs 8.0) according to how I’m going to use it in the video. Can you help me with this? If I understand the 3x frame size, the normal frame size for TV is 720*480. So, 2x would be 720×2 & 480×2? Same for 3x? Do I have this right? Again, I rather have all pictures scanned at 3x with the highest DPI. I will resize it myself to fit the usage of photos in the video. So, 3x = what, and at what dpi?

Second question.

When I decide to resize, is there a rule on what dpi should follow? I understand that normal TV with no panning/moving etc is 720*480 @ 72dpi.. For each frame size I change what it the best dpi for each frame size? The lower the dpi- the better resolution/pixilation? I thought dpi was important for printing only? So based on what I will request as my norm- for all pictures (3x and keeping in mind that I will do the resizing myself to fit the video,)
my instructions would be to the customer?:

Format pict or tiff
Scanned @

[Bill Willins]

first off – 72 dpi would be just fine ( easier to email ) …. again as Kevin explains, if you have them scanned at 300 dpi, you have tons of latitude in re-sizing, since they will end up 72dpi in your FCP project. For me, I prefer to work in the smaller 72 dpi file size . As for scanned image size ….. I don’t like too much motion or movement working with stills … easy to look cheezy. Note, the “Ken Burns” effects are usually fairly slow and subtle. So for me, 2x your native 720 pixels wide native screen size would be way more than adequate. Also lots of motion can introduce lots of pixelation. good luck.